Patrick West’s radio crackled.
On the other end was an alert of a potential fire in the Life Sciences Building.
Within minutes, LSUPD was directed to the scene where officers discovered the root of the problem: a melted plastic beaker.
“[There’s] always the human element when it comes to accidents,” West said. “And we do everything we can to make sure this campus is as safe as possible for our students.”
West, University manager of occupational and environmental safety, is one of the many on-campus officials working every day to protect the campus from fire hazards – and with good reason.
In the 2006-2007 academic year, 20 college students across the nation died in fire related accidents, according to Campus Firewatch, an online publication that monitors fire safety issues at universities across the nation. According to the same report, the 2007-2008 academic year to date has brought the deaths of 13 college students in the United States.
“Fire safety is something you should know no matter where you’re living,” said Ed Comeau, publisher of Campus Firewatch and ex-chief fire investigator for the National Fire Protection Association. “It can strike no matter where you are.”
Comeau said 83 percent of the fires affecting college students occurred at off-campus residencies. Residence halls and Greek housing across the nation account for a combined 16 percent of these fires.
Comeau added that since January 2000, approximately 19 percent of these fires have killed 42 percent of the victims – meaning a smaller percentage of catastrophic, multiple-fatality fires are responsible for the deaths of most the victims.
These trends and recent national fire-related tragedies ranging from a wildfire in California to a burned-down beach house on the opposite coast to a house fire this past week right outside of campus have brought fire safety to the national stage.
Residential Halls Comeau said residence halls in the United States employing sprinkler systems are in the minority but added that he has seen a national trend for schools to voluntarily install sprinkler systems in their residence halls.
“Residence halls are a priority for us because of the high concentration of individuals residing in the residential halls,” Guillory said.
Sam Territo, associate director of facilities for Residential Life, said of the 16 residence halls on campus, 10 already have complete sprinkler systems. He said the six dorms without a complete sprinkler system will have one by 2011 at the latest.
He said many of the dorms on campus were not required to have sprinkler systems when they were built. He said a sprinkler system for a dorm the size of Herget Hall can cost as much as $800,000.
The systems take at least three months to install. And because the beds in a dorm being renovated would be unusable and they have no place to house students using those beds, systems may only be installed during summer months, which slows the process of installing sprinkler systems in all the dorms.
“Anytime we renovate a building, we’re putting them in,” Territo said.
Territo said all dorms have smoke detectors. He said dorms also have fire extinguishers, which are checked twice annually and refilled every three years.
Territo said the state fire marshal’s office inspects the dorms during the summer and again during the school year in an unannounced walk through of all the residential halls.
He said residents also participate in two fire drills every semester. The first drill is training, so residents know what to do in the event of a fire. The second drill is to make sure all students leave the hall and is often scheduled for night hours.
Territo said there has never been an open-flamed fire in a campus dormitory.
Greek
Angela Guillory, director of Greek Affairs, said of the 29 fraternity and sorority houses on campus, 11 have complete sprinkler systems, eight have partial sprinkler systems and 10 do not have automatic sprinklers. Guillory said she was not comfortable disclosing which houses had sprinkler systems.
Greek Affairs schedules a week in September with the fire marshall for all the houses to be inspected. She said the houses are inspected annually, and the fire marshall works with the fraternities and sororities without sprinkler systems to have additional protective measures.
She said all of the Greek houses have smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and posted evacuation routes.
Lorraine Carli, spokesperson for the National Fire Protection Association, said there were 3,300 fires in dormitories – which includes dorms, fraternity and sorority houses and barracks – in the U.S. during 2005, the latest year with compiled statistics. She said the leading cause of fires in a college setting is cooking accidents. She said the improper disposal of cigarettes – often when students are drinking – is another source of many of these fires.
She said students should be aware of a building’s exits, and students should not tamper with or disarm any smoke alarms. She said the amount of on-campus housing with sprinklers is increasing nationally.
“We would certainly advocate for sprinklers in any kind of occupancy,” Carli said. “Sprinklers provide another level of protection in the event of a fire.”
Michael Guillory, Facility Services director, said out of all the buildings on campus, 65 have complete sprinkler systems. He said these buildings are high occupancy and are often mandated by code to have the system.
Regulations
Steve Gogreve, manager of the inspection division of the state fire marshal’s office, said all state-owned buildings on campus are inspected annually.
Michael Guillory said campus buildings are up to code and should be considered safe by students. He said if there is a serious problem, the building will be closed until it can be corrected.
When the state fire marshal’s office inspects buildings on campus, Guillory said, they are given a green, yellow or red tag. He said a green tag indicates the building may be safely occupied. A yellow tag means the building has minor defenciencies, but the protection systems are still operable. A red tag means there are either major problems, or a problem remains more than 60 days since identifying a building as a yellow tag.
Records provided by the Office of Facility Services indicate of 174 buildings inspected since the start of July 2007, were all considered green tags expect for five yellow tags – all of which are buildings currently under construction renovations.
He said there are approximately 200 buildings on campus protected by fire alarm systems, which includes smoke detectors and heat detectors. He said there are about 40 buildings on campus without fire alarm systems, but those buildings are not required by code to have one and are smaller facilities with minimal traffic and occupancy.
“The key point is we don’t actually monitor for fire,” Michael Guillory said. “We look for the evidence of a fire – smoke, heat.”
Michael Guillory said all of the fire alarm systems are monitored by the Campus Energy Management Systems, which reports to 25 work stations strategically located around campus. Several of these stations are manned 24 hours a day, allowing immediate detection of a fire in any of these campus buildings.
“The University is not required by code to monitor every fire alarm [system] on campus,” he said. “But we feel it is necessary [to monitor all our systems] to reduce the response time during an event as well as to ensure proper operation of the systems.”
The Systems
Michael Guillory said there are 64 buildings identified as high occupancy buildings on campus that require by code, as well as some buildings not required, a radio-frequency monitoring system, the Keltron system. The Keltron system is monitored by the same campus departments as the normal fire alarm systems. He said more than $500,000 has been spent in recent years to deploy the Keltron system on campus.
The systems alert and dispatch campus police, East Baton Rouge Fire Department and a Facility Services technician to assist with technical issues of the system. He said the systems allow first responders to be on scene in three to five minutes within detection of a problem.
After a fire broke out in the Nuclear Science building three years ago, a new $45,000 systems was installed to ensure another fire would be more quickly detected, Michael Guillory said. He said both the Music and Dramatic Arts Building and the School of Veterinary Medicine are currently receiving new fire alarm systems, and they are accepting bids for the installation of new systems in all three Thomas Boyd buildings.
“Facility Services and Campus Safety work closely with the administration to ensure life and property are well protected on campus,” he said. “Life safety is a priority for the administration at LSU and funding reflects this priority.”
Robert Combs, BRPD public information officer, said the station located on Highland Road, is responsible for covering the entire campus. He said there have been approximately 150 calls relating to instances on campus this calendar year, but because they respond to all 911 calls, the vast majority of the calls were medical, false alarms or system malfunctions. He said fires on campus are typically car fires or fires caused by a garbage incinerator.
“There were very few actual fires that they responded to,” Combs said.
—-Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]